A Texas legislative panel is recommending an infusion of $75.3 million in emergency funding for the Department of Family and Protective Services to allow for caseworker raises and hire more people. But agency Commissioner Hank Whitman won’t get everything he requested.

The five-member special workgroup made up of Senate Finance Committee members has decided to recommend giving Whitman the money he asked for to increase salaries for Child Protective Services workers, but not enough to hire 550 new workers as he originally hoped. The funding would include $67.6 million in state general funds, while the rest would be federal money.

The panel’s plan would allow the agency to boost salaries by $12,000 and hire 136 new workers, including 50 new special investigators, 50 new investigative caseworkers and 36 new support staff members. Whitman had originally wanted to hire an additional 200 investigative caseworkers and an additional 100 special investigators.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that Texas has violated foster children’s constitutional rights to be free from an unreasonable risk of harm, saying that children “often age out of care more damaged than when they entered.”

“Years of abuse, neglect and shuttling between inappropriate placements across the state has created a population that cannot contribute to society, and proves a continued strain on the government through welfare, incarceration or otherwise,” the ruling states. “… Although some foster children are able to overcome these obstacles, they should not have to.”

The class-action lawsuit, brought by the New York-based advocacy group Children’s Rights, Inc. in 2011 on behalf of children in long-term foster care, argued that Texas caseworkers are assigned too many children for them to effectively monitor and that kids are placed toofar away from home into settings where they do not get appropriate care.

In it, Children’s Rights asked U.S. District Judge Janis Jack of Corpus Christi to order the state to take steps such as hiring more qualified caseworkers and setting lower caseload limits. The lawsuit also called for the state to quit placing children with no special needs in more restrictive residential treatment centers and for better staffing ratios in group foster homes.

In the ruling, which the state is expected to appeal within 30 days, Jack orders child welfare officials to “establish and implement policies and procedures” to ensure that foster children are protected, and appoints a “special master” to ensure compliance. That overseer will be chosen by the court but funded by the state.

She also directs the state to stop placing certain foster children in unsafe placements like “foster group homes that lack 24-hour awake-night supervision.”

Texas’ roughly $1.2 billion-per-year Child Protective Services division, with about 8,000 employees, is one of the nation’s largest child abuse investigation and foster care teams. Independent child welfare advocates have said a ruling in favor of Children’s Rights could require significant changes at the agency, raising questions about whether state lawmakers would need to reconvene during a special legislative session to implement — and allocate money for — reforms.

Attorneys for an Irving mother whose three children drowned in a swimming pool have filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the Dallas County Child Protective Services Unit of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Service.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Patricia Allen, alleges a violation of her 14th Amendment right to due process, and says CPS continues to seek termination of Allen’s parental rights despite knowing allegations against her are false.

A Texas Christian family is facing the nightmare that all 11 of their homeschooled children (16, 14, 12, 9, 8 [twins], 7, 6, 3, 2, and 12 weeks) will be forcibly removed from them at the end of the month. The only explanation for this is because they have been in the sights of that state’s child protective services division, as there has never been any history of abuse or neglect. –

Nearly two years before the murder of six Houston siblings, a state district judge denied a request by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to keep them in foster care, according to a memo sent to members of the Legislature on Tuesday.

Six children belonging to Valerie Jackson were taken into foster care on Sept. 19, 2013. But nearly a month later, they were ordered returned to their mother, according to an email sent on Tuesday to Texas lawmakers.

“On October 10, 2013 Judge Glen Devlin court ordered the children back home with their mother Valerie Jackson,” Jamie McCormick, external relations manager at the Department of Family and Protective Services, wrote to lawmakers. “The judge denied the Department request to continue legal intervention due to cooperation from the parents.”

The six children found murdered along with two adults in Houston over the weekend were no strangers to Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which investigated at least four complaints about their care dating back 2011, and temporarily took the children into foster care two years later.

“The Department believes that the children are in immediate danger,” wrote agency caseworker Brittney James on Sept. 19, 2013 in an affidavit petitioning a Houston court for the removal of all six from their mother, Valerie Jackson.

On Saturday, Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies discovered the children: Nathaniel Conley, 13; Dwayne Jackson Jr., 10; Honesty Jackson, 11; Caleb Jackson, 9; Jonah Jackson, 6; and Trinity Jackson, 7; along with their 40-year-old mother and father to all but the oldest, Dwayne Jackson, 50, fatally shot in their north Houston home.

FORT WORTH, Texas — A new state report reveals a series of missteps in the horrific abuse death of a 2-year-old boy earlier this year.The case of Adrian Langlais surfaced in April after his mother’s boyfriend was arrested on a murder charge.A Texas Department of Family and Protective Services report released on Friday to WFAA News 8 indicates that there were red flags and mistakes made by a former case worker, who was tasked with an investigation into previous reports of abuse.

HOUSTON, TX – Julie Ketterman of KHA Lawyers, PLLC, is passionate about defending families and the rights of parents in cases involving Child Protective Services (CPS), a program of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. The case workers and administration at CPS are responsible for investigating reports of child abuse, placing children in foster care and providing services to children and families. Frequently, CPS also removes children from their homes and places them with foster-to-adoptive parents. According to Ketterman, this is happening far too often.

“The role of CPS has changed over the years,” Ketterman said. “They have become too powerful and have shifted their focus from offering guidance and support to acting as a punitive force.” Historically, CPS would provide in-home services to help stabilize families in need of assistance and maintain children in their home. Preventing child abuse and ensuring a safe home environment was the ultimate goal.

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WHISTLEBLOWERS WANTED

CCHR is looking for anyone who knows of incidents of fraudulent prescribing, failure to follow Texas drugging guidelines for children or who has knowledge of illegal referral fees or kickbacks in the drugging of Medicaid children to come forward.

This includes knowledgeable employees of DFPS and HHSC, staff of any local office or clinic, any contractor, foster parent or citizen with knowledge.

Please use the short form below to get in touch with us and someone from our office will contact you. Your information is held in the strictest confidence.

Texas Psychiatry News

Abused children in Texas are being left in psychiatric facilities longer than they were six years ago as the state’s child protective services system grapples with federal court scrutiny and diminishing options, according to data obtained by The Texas Tribune. Last year, 17,151 Texas children were removed from abusive homes. While the agency could not say exactly how […]

Houston police found the 16-year-old foster child in a park in early November 2013, just a few days after she ran away from a residential treatment center in northwest Houston. Rosario, a baby-faced, black-haired girl who carried a little extra weight, said she’d been selling her body for money. The cops returned her to the […]